"There's a bigger problem with young black individuals being killed on our streets by police," the star tells the BBC.

Dustin Hoffman has added his voice to the ongoing diversity debate reverberating around Hollywood and the wider film industry.

Speaking at the National TV Awards, held in London on Wednesday night, the two-time Oscar winner said that the lack of nominations for black actors at the Academy Awards was an example of the "subliminal racism" present in the U.S.

"In our country, there's a subliminal racism, and it's been there ... the end of the Civil War didn't change that, he told the BBC on the red carpet. "It's only been 200 hundred years, this is just an example of it."

Hoffman added: "Other than black entertainers being nominated, there's a bigger problem with young black individuals being killed on our streets by police. That's a bigger problem."